Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 557: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the monitoring system in place to ensure the work placement scheme is not abused by companies which could acquire employees at no cost to the company instead of providing employment themselves; if the accounts of these companies are examined to ensure they cannot pay for the employment themselves; if there is a different system in place to ensure these companies are not abusing the system. [27869/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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FÁS are responsible for managing and overseeing the Work Placement Programme and they have a number of measures designed to prevent exploitation and the displacement of existing or prospective employment. All potential providers must complete and sign a from that confirms the following:

The placement will not be provided to fill an existing vacancy.

The placement will not be provided to displace an existing employee.

Providers must have Public and Employers liability insurance and this must cover the participant on the work placement.

Providers must confirm that their company is fully compliant with current workplace health and safety and all other legal requirements.

In addition, organisations are not allowed to participate if they have made an employee redundant in the last three months. However, where there is no direct displacement of an employee, and the level of redundancies in the last three months was less than 5% of the workforce, these organisations will be eligible to participate.

FÁS has also put in place a process whereby opportunities offered under the Work Placement Programme are cross checked against any recent similar job vacancies notified to FÁS by employers with a view to avoiding any related job displacements.

During each placement the provider receives formal monitoring visits from FÁS. The visits are conducted to monitor whether the placement is taking place as described in the original work placement description and remains in accordance with the criteria of the programme.